This invention relates to a pressure sensor, and more particularly, to a pressure sensor embodying a ferroelectric liquid crystal material.
In general, most pressure sensors for use at the present are composed of a piezoelectric crystalline layer interposed between parallel electrodes, from which an electric signal is generated in response to the pressure applied on the piezoelectric crystalline layer. Ferroelectric materials such as barium titanate, lead titanate, lead zirconate and so on are used for example.
Since the processes using such inorganic materials require high temperatures, the production apparatuses are expensive. Also, it is difficult to obtain a large bulk of such a piezoelectric crystal, while arrays collectively composed of small elements, although well-known in the area, bring difficulties in production.
Furthermore, most of such piezoelectric crystals used for existing pressure sensors have to be so thick as to exhibit sufficient piezoelectric effect so that the sensors are hardly transparent. Because of this, they are not suitable for application to touch panels of a computor main frame.